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Hollywood studios sue file-sharing website Pirate Bay

Several major movie studios, such as Disney and Columbia, are suing the founder of the file-sharing website The Pirate Bay. The studios accuse it of supporting the illegal exchange of movie files; the founders have already been sentenced to jail.

AFP - Hollywood studios are suing the popular Pirate Bay file-sharing website for moving pirated material even after its founders were sentenced for copyright crime, a lawyer said Tuesday.

"We have filed a complaint against The Pirate Bay because they have not stopped their activities after they were sentenced to prison," the studios' Swedish lawyer Monique Wadsted told AFP.

Hollywood studios Columbia, Disney, Paramount and others are asking for the website's founders -- Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde -- to be banned from "continuing to carry out their activity".

Founded in 2003, The Pirate Bay makes it possible to avoid copyright fees and share music, film and computer game files.

Internet operator Black Internet is also targeted by the studios' lawsuit which focuses on "about 100 television series and films", according to Wadsted, who said that if found guilty the defendants should be fined.

A Swedish court in April found the men behind The Pirate Bay guilty of promoting copyright infringement by running the site, sentencing them to a year in prison.

They were also ordered to pay damages of 30 million kronor (2.8 million euros, four million dollars) to the movie and recording industry.

The four have appealed the verdict, though no date has been set for the appeals trial.

A Swedish gaming group said in late June that it would buy The Pirate Bay for 5.6 million euros. The company, Global Gaming Factory, plans to begin paying copyright fees once the deal is completed, possibly in August.